An Ontology for G2G Collaboration in Public Policy Making,Implementation and Evaluation

This paper concerns the development and use of ontologies for electronically supporting and structuring the highest-level function of government: the design, implementation and evaluation of public policies for the big and complex problems that modern societies face. This critical government function usually necessitates extensive interaction and collaboration among many heterogeneous government organizations (G2G collaboration) with different backgrounds, mentalities, values, interests and expectations, so it can greatly benefit from the use of ontologies. In this direction initially an ontology of public policy making, implementation and evaluation is described, which has been developed as part of the project ICTE-PAN of the Information Society Technologies (IST) Programme of the European Commission, based on sound theoretical foundations mainly from the public policy analysis domain and contributions of experts from the public administrations of four European Union countries (Denmark, Germany, Greece and Italy). It is a ‘horizontal’ ontology that can be used for electronically supporting and structuring the whole lifecycle of a public policy in any vertical (thematic) area of government activity; it can also be combined with ‘vertical’ ontologies of the specific vertical (thematic) area of government activity we are dealing with. In this paper is also described the use of this ontology for electronically supporting and structuring the collaborative public policy making, implementation and evaluation through ‘structured electronic forums’, ‘extended workflows’, ‘public policy stages with specific sub-ontologies’, etc., and also for the semantic annotation, organization, indexing and integration of the contributions of the participants of these forums, which enable the development of advanced semantic web capabilities in this area.     

Priority scheduling service for E-commerce web servers

Service scheduling is one of the crucial issues in E-commerce environment. E-commerce web servers often get overloaded as they have to deal with a large number of customers’ requests—for example, browse, search, and pay, in order to make purchases or to get product information from E-commerce web sites. In this paper, we propose a new approach in order to effectively handle high traffic load and to improve web server’s performance. Our solution is to exploit networking techniques and to classify customers’ requests into different classes such that some requests are prioritised over others. We contend that such classification is financially beneficial to E-commerce services as in these services some requests are more valuable than others. For instance, the processing of “browse” request should get less priority than “payment” request as the latter is considered to be more valuable to the service provider. Our approach analyses the arrival process of distinct requests and employs a priority scheduling service at the network nodes that gives preferential treatment to high priority requests. The proposed approach is tested through various experiments which show significant decrease in the response time of high priority requests. This also reduces the probability of dropping high priority requests by a web server and thus enabling service providers to generate more revenue.     

Towards a natural language semantics without functors and operands

The paper sets out to offer an alternative to the function/argument approach to the most essential aspects of natural language meanings. That is, we question the assumption that semantic completeness (of, e.g., propositions) or incompleteness (of, e.g., predicates) exactly replicate the corresponding grammatical concepts (of, e.g., sentences and verbs, respectively). We argue that even if one gives up this assumption, it is still possible to keep the compositionality of the semantic interpretation of simple predicate/argument structures. In our opinion, compositionality presupposes that we are able to compare arbitrary meanings in term of information content. This is why our proposal relies on an ‘intrinsically’ type free algebraic semantic theory. The basic entities in our models are neither individuals, nor eventualities, nor their properties, but ‘pieces of evidence’ for believing in the ‘truth’ or ‘existence’ or ‘identity’ of any kind of phenomenon. Our formal language contains a single binary non-associative constructor used for creating structured complex terms representing arbitrary phenomena. We give a finite Hilbert-style axiomatisation and a decision algorithm for the entailment problem of the suggested system.     

The significant other: the value of jewellery in the conception,design and experience of body focused digital devices

In this paper, we demonstrate how craft practice in contemporary jewellery opens up conceptions of ‘digital jewellery’ to possibilities beyond merely embedding pre-existing behaviours of digital systems in objects, which follow shallow interpretations of jewellery. We argue that a design approach that understands jewellery only in terms of location on the body is likely to lead to a world of ‘gadgets’, rather than anything that deserves the moniker ‘jewellery’. In contrast, by adopting a craft approach, we demonstrate that the space of digital jewellery can include objects where the digital functionality is integrated as one facet of an object that can be personally meaningful for the holder or wearer.     

An informational divergence geometry for stochastic matrices

Summary The informational divergence between stochastic matrices is not a metric. In this paper we show that, however, consistent definitions can be given of ‘spheres’, ‘segments’ and ‘straight lines’ using the divergence as a sort of ‘distance’ between stochastic matrices. The geometric nature of many ‘reliability functions’ of Information Theory and Mathematical Statistics is thus clarified. This work has been done within the GNIM-CNR research activity.     

Exploring agent support at the user interface in e-commerce applications

In this paper, we present some of the results from our ongoing research work in the area of ‘agent support’ for electronic commerce, particularly at the user interface level. Our goal is to provide intelligent agents to assist both the consumers and the vendors in an electronic shopping environment. Users with a wide variety of different needs are expected to use the electronic shopping application and their expectations about the interface could vary a lot. Traditional studies of user interface technology have shown the existence of a ‘gap’ between what the user interface actually lets the users do and the users’ expectations. Agent technology, in the form of personalized user interface agents, can help to narrow this gap. Such agents can be used to give a personalized service to the user by knowing the user’s preferences. By doing so, they can assist in the various stages of the users’ shopping process, provide tailored product recommendations by filtering information on behalf of their users and reduce the information overload. From a vendor’s perspective, a software sales agent could be used for price negotiation with the consumer. Such agents would give the flexibility offered by negotiation without the burden of having to provide human presence to an online store to handle such negotiations. Published online: 25 July 2001     

Scenario Development and Practical Decision Making under Uncertainty: Application to Requirements Engineering

In this paper, we address the question of how flesh and blood decision makers manage the combinatorial explosion in scenario development for decision making under uncertainty. The first assumption is that the decision makers try to undertake ‘robust’ actions. For the decision maker a robust action is an action that has sufficiently good results whatever the events are. We examine the psychological as well as the theoretical problems raised by the notion of robustness. Finally, we address the false feeling of decision makers who talk of ‘risk control’. We argue that ‘risk control’ results from the thinking that one can postpone action after nature moves. This ‘action postponement’ amounts to changing look-ahead reasoning into diagnosis. We illustrate these ideas in the framework of software development and examine some possible implications for requirements analysis.     

On the numerical solution of nonlinear systems of Volterra integro-differential equations with delay arguments

Particular cases of nonlinear systems of delay Volterra integro-differential equations (denoted by DVIDEs) with constant delay τ > 0, arise in mathematical modelling of ‘predator–prey’ dynamics in Ecology. In this paper, we give an analysis of the global convergence and local superconvergence properties of piecewise polynomial collocation for systems of this type. Then, from the perspective of applied mathematics, we consider the Volterra’s integro-differential system of ‘predator–prey’ dynamics arising in Ecology. We analyze the numerical issues of the introduced collocation method applied to the ‘predator–prey’ system and confirm that we can achieve the expected theoretical orders of convergence.      

Networks of Science and Technology in India: The Elite and the Subaltern Streams

The paper investigates the structure and functioning of the science and technology (S&T) system in India as it has evolved in the post-independence period (1947 onwards). The networks of entities involved in S&T actions, the paper argues, can be categorised, in terms of adopted approaches to agenda and priority setting and accounting for actions, into two streams. The origins and expansion of the two streams are traced. One, the ‘Elite’ stream (high profile and visibility linked to big industry), adopting what the paper has generically termed the ‘Nehruvian’ model of development, is shown to have emerged as a dominant network. The other socially powerful ‘Subaltern’ stream (less visible, closer to ground realities and linked to village and cottage industry), adopting the ‘Gandhian’ model of development, still remains dispersed and outside the consideration of high-level decision-making bodies. The paper stresses the importance of moving the support and attention from the dominant stream to efforts that attempt a synthesis between the dominant and the subaltern.     

Patterns on a Surface: The Reconciliation of the Circle and the Square

The theory of heat flow on a surface shows that any curvilinear quadrilateral can be ‘tiled’ with curvilinear squares of varying size. This paper demonstrates a simple numerical technique for doing this that can also be applied to shapes other than quadrilaterals. In particular, any curvilinear triangle can be tiled with curvilinear equilateral triangles.     

The Design, Performance, and Use of DiPerF: An automated DIstributed PERformance evaluation Framework

We present DiPerF, a DIstributed PERformance evaluation Framework, aimed at simplifying and automating performance evaluation of networked services. DiPerF coordinates a pool of machines that access a target service and collect performance measurements, aggregates these measurements, and generates performance statistics. The aggregate data collected provide information on service throughput, service response time, service ‘fairness’ when serving multiple clients concurrently, and on the impact of network connectivity on service performance. We have used DiPerF in various environments (PlanetLab, Grid3, TeraGrid, and a cluster) and with a large number of services. This paper provides data that demonstrates that DiPerF is accurate: The aggregate client view matches the tested service view within a few percents, and scalable: DiPerF can handle more than 10,000 clients and 100,000 transactions per second. Moreover, rapid adoption and extensive use demonstrate that the ability to automate performance characteristics extraction makes DiPerF a valuable tool.     

Using virtual scans for improved mapping and evaluation

In this paper we present a system to enhance the performance of feature correspondence based alignment algorithms for laser scan data. We show how this system can be utilized as a new approach for evaluation of mapping algorithms. Assuming a certain a priori knowledge, our system augments the sensor data with hypotheses (‘Virtual Scans’) about ideal models of objects in the robot’s environment. These hypotheses are generated by analysis of the current aligned map estimated by an underlying iterative alignment algorithm. The augmented data is used to improve the alignment process. Feedback between data alignment and data analysis confirms, modifies, or discards the Virtual Scans in each iteration. Experiments with a simulated scenario and real world data from a rescue robot scenario show the applicability and advantages of the approach. By replacing the estimated ‘Virtual Scans’ with ground truth maps our system can provide a flexible way for evaluating different mapping algorithms in different settings.     

The social acceptability of AI systems: Legitimacy,epistemology and marketing

The expression, ‘the culture of the artificial’ results from the confusion between nature and culture, when nature mingles with culture to produce the ‘artificial’ and science becomes ‘the science of the artificial’. Artificial intelligence can thus be defined as the ultimate expression of the crisis affecting the very foundation of the system of legitimacy in Western society, i.e. Reason, and more precisely, Scientific Reason. The discussion focuses on the emergence of the culture of the artificial and the radical forms of pragmatism, sophism and marketing from a French philosophical perspective. The paper suggests that in the postmodern age of the ‘the crisis of the systems of legitimacy’, the question of social acceptability of any action, especially actions arising out of the application of AI, cannot be avoided.     

How Can I Help You? Call Centres,Classification Work and Coordination

As a comparatively novel but increasingly pervasive organizational arrangement, call centres have been a focus for much recent research. This paper identifies lessons for organizational and technological design through an examination of call centres and ‘classification work’ – explicating what Star [1992, Systems/Practice vol. 5, pp. 395–410] terms the ‘open black box’. Classification is a central means by which organizations standardize procedure, assess productivity, develop services and re-organize their business. Nevertheless, as Bowker and Star [1999, Sorting Things Out: Classification and Its Consequences. Cambridge MA: MIT Press] have pointed out, we know relatively little about the work that goes into making classification schema what they are. We will suggest that a focus on classification ‘work’ in this context is a useful exemplar of the need for some kind of ‘meta-analysis’ in ethnographic work also. If standardization is a major ambition for organizations under late capitalism, then comparison might be seen as a related but as-yet unrealized one for ethnographers. In this paper, we attempt an initial cut at a comparative approach, focusing on classification because it seemed to be the primary issue that emerged when we compared studies. Moreover, if technology is the principal means through which procedure and practice is implemented and if, as we believe, classifications are becoming ever more explicitly embedded within it (for instance with the development of so-called ‘semantic web’ and associated approaches to ontology-based design), then there is clearly a case for identifying some themes which might underpin classification work in a given domain.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">Assessing the Impact of Input Features in a Feedforward Neural Network</Emphasis>

For a variety of reasons, the relative impacts of neural-net inputs on the output of a network’s computation is valuable information to obtain. In particular, it is desirable to identify the significant features, or inputs, of a data-defined problem before the data is sufficiently preprocessed to enable high performance neural-net training. We have defined and tested a technique for assessing such input impacts, which will be compared with a method described in a paper published earlier in this journal. The new approach, known as the ‘clamping’ technique, offers efficient impact assessment of the input features of the problem. Results of the clamping technique prove to be robust under a variety of different network configurations. Differences in architecture, training parameter values and subsets of the data all deliver much the same impact rankings, which supports the notion that the technique ranks an inherent property of the available data rather than a property of any particular feedforward neural network. The success, stability and efficiency of the clamping technique are shown to hold for a number of different real-world problems. In addition, we subject the previously published technique, which we will call the ‘weight product’ technique, to the same tests in order to provide directly comparable information.     

Institution Morphisms

Institutions formalise the intuitive notion of logical system, including syntax, semantics, and the relation of satisfaction between them. Our exposition emphasises the natural way that institutions can support deduction on sentences, and inclusions of signatures, theories, etc.; it also introduces terminology to clearly distinguish several levels of generality of the institution concept. A surprising number of different notions of morphism have been suggested for forming categories with institutions as objects, and an amazing variety of names have been proposed for them. One goal of this paper is to suggest a terminology that is uniform and informative to replace the current chaotic nomenclature; another goal is to investigate the properties and interrelations of these notions in a systematic way. Following brief expositions of indexed categories, diagram categories, twisted relations and Kan extensions, we demonstrate and then exploit the duality between institution morphisms in the original sense of Goguen and Burstall, and the ‘plain maps’ of Meseguer, obtaining simple uniform proofs of completeness and cocompleteness for both resulting categories. Because of this duality, we prefer the name ‘comorphism’ over ‘plain map’; moreover, we argue that morphisms are more natural than comorphisms in many cases. We also consider ‘theoroidal’ morphisms and comorphisms, which generalise signatures to theories, based on a theoroidal institution construction, finding that the ‘maps’ of Meseguer are theoroidal comorphisms, while theoroidal morphisms are a new concept. We introduce ‘forward’ and ‘semi-natural’ morphisms, and develop some of their properties. Appendices discuss institutions for partial algebra, a variant of order sorted algebra, two versions of hidden algebra, and a generalisation of universal algebra; these illustrate various points in the main text. A final appendix makes explicit a greater generality for the institution concept, clarifies certain details and proves some results that lift institution theory to this level. Received December 2000 / Accepted in revised form January 2002     

Designing for social interaction with mundane technologies: issues of security and trust

This paper documents some of the socio-technical issues involved in developing security measures for wireless mesh networks (WMNs) that are deployed as part of a community network. We are interested in discovering whether (and exactly how) everyday social interaction over the network is affected by security issues, and any consequent design implications. We adopt an interdisciplinary methodological approach to requirements, treating a community as an ‘organization’ and implementing an approach, OCTAVE, originally designed to uncover security elements for organizations. Using a focus group technique we chart some of the assets and security concerns of the community, concerns that need to be addressed in order for WMNs, or indeed any network, to become a truly ‘mundane technology’.     

DSM as a knowledge capture tool in CODE environment

A design structure matrix (DSM) provides a simple, compact, and visual representation of a complex system/ process. This paper shows how DSM, a system engineering tool, is applied as a knowledge capture (acquisition) tool in a generic NPD process. The acquired knowledge (identified in the DSM) is provided in the form of Questionnaires, which are organized into five performance indicators of the organization namely ‘Marketing’, ‘Technical’, ‘Financial’, ‘Resource Management’, and ‘Project Management’. Industrial application is carried out for knowledge validation. It is found form the application that the acquired knowledge helps NPD teams, managers and stakeholders to benchmark their NPD endeavor and select areas to focus their improvement efforts (up to 80% valid).     

Things to Know when Implementing KBO

The Knuth–Bendix ordering (KBO) is one of the term orderings in widespread use. We present a new algorithm to compute KBO, which is (to our knowledge) the first asymptotically optimal one. Starting with an ‘obviously correct’ version, we use program transformation to stepwise develop an efficient version, making clear the essential ideas, while retaining correctness. By theoretical analysis we show that the worst-case behavior is thereby changed from quadratic to linear. Measurements show the practical improvements of the different variants.     

Efficient distribution-free population learning of simple concepts

We consider a variant of the ‘population learning model’ proposed by Kearns and Seung [8], in which the learner is required to be ‘distribution-free’ as well as computationally efficient. A population learner receives as input hypotheses from a large population of agents and produces as output its final hypothesis. Each agent is assumed to independently obtain labeled sample for the target concept and output a hypothesis. A polynomial time population learner is said to PAC-learn a concept class, if its hypothesis is probably approximately correct whenever the population size exceeds a certain bound which is polynomial, even if the sample size for each agent is fixed at some constant. We exhibit some general population learning strategies, and some simple concept classes that can be learned by them. These strategies include the ‘supremum hypothesis finder’, the ‘minimum superset finder’ (a special case of the ‘supremum hypothesis finder’), and various voting schemes. When coupled with appropriate agent algorithms, these strategies can learn a variety of simple concept classes, such as the ‘high–low game’, conjunctions, axis-parallel rectangles and others. We give upper bounds on the required population size for each of these cases, and show that these systems can be used to obtain a speed up from the ordinary PAC-learning model [11], with appropriate choices of sample and population sizes. With the population learner restricted to be a voting scheme, what we have is effectively a model of ‘population prediction’, in which the learner is to predict the value of the target concept at an arbitrarily drawn point, as a threshold function of the predictions made by its agents on the same point. We show that the population learning model is strictly more powerful than the population prediction model. Finally, we consider a variant of this model with classification noise, and exhibit a population learner for the class of conjunctions in this model. This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.